Women’s History Month: Women of Hansen: Ragnhild Hansen

Happy International Women’s Day! This Women’s History month we want to recognize the achievements of women all over the world but particularly those near and dear to us, and we will be honoring various women we admire throughout the month. The first woman we want to honor is Ragnhild Hansen: Niels Hansen’s mother.

Ragnhild Hansen was the original other Hansen in “Hansen and Hansen” (the first name of our business). She was born in Denmark in 1928 and lived and worked through the Nazi regime, often enduring catcalls from soldiers and living with constant fear from working above a Gestapo office at her local Dairy Union. She went back to this job years later and advocated on behalf of the workers for better working conditions even whilst battling late-stage cancer. She took night classes to both learn computers and learn English to communicate with the US side of our family and also ran the business side of Niels’ father’s architectural practice.

Niels learned from her that you don’t always have to be the loudest to make a difference in the world. Her leadership, loyalty and honesty continue to inspire us at Hansen and we hope to live up to her example every day.

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